Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (2017)

I never expected to like this drama as much as I did. I expected it to be a repeat of "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo", and although they both have general romcom similarities, and strong female leads, they are totally different. This is really a superhero story as much as a romcom. Bong Soon is one of those characters that's easy to like and will be hard to forget. The show feels more like a comic than a drama and takes multiple genres to the extreme... it's an action-romance-thriller-comedy... and viewers should be warned that everything about this show is waaaaay over the top. I suggest not taking anything too seriously and just enjoying all the craziness this show has to offer.

Do Bong Soon is played by Park Bo Young, who was in one of my favorite dramas,"Oh My Ghostess", yet I didn't recognize her at all. With her super cute bob haircut, her amped up adorable personality, and her petite stature, it was exciting to see her character with this unexpected superhuman strength. I loved her character's origin story, and I'm always a fan of the anti-damsel in distress, so I was already interested in this drama from episode one. She really plays the sweet girl you don't want to mess with role extremely well.

She is matched with Park Hyung Shik as Ahn Min Hyeok, and I don't think I can accurately describe with words how charming, and just beautiful to look at he is in this role - it's *swoon* overload. He is not even my type, at all, but it's like they put a special perfection filter on him, and he played every scene in a way that made it impossible for me not to fall for him. Together their adorable couple rating is off the charts! Their chemistry is perfect, so perfect that the cheesiest scenes and moments still worked for me, and soooo many scenes were extra cheesy. He is also so supportive of her, which makes the traditional role reversal refreshing to watch. To me they came right up to the border of being obnoxious in their cuteness, but never crossed it, because they were such a good match.

The rest of the cast was mostly awesome too, considering all the genres that they had to cover. Ji Soo as In Gook Doo completes the love triangle, and plays his part really well, although I honestly couldn't stand how the actual character behaved. Gook Doo may inspire 2nd lead syndrome in some, but he was too controlling and self-righteous for me to really root for. I loved Bong Soon's family, BFF, and especially grandma. I also really liked the villain, who I think was played by the actor better than the character was actually written. He was creepy and sinister, yet kinda seductive and attractive, which I think is a recipe for an excellent villain/nemesis. Then there is the supporting cast MVP Kim Won Hae. I didn't love him in his first role, It was just too corny and gross for me, but his second role was hilarious in its absurdity. I applaud his ability to take both roles to such extremes. The cast is definitely full of memorable characters.

Part of the reason I deducted some acting points was because a lot of the comedy just wasn't my to my taste. Korean humor can get too silly for me sometimes, which was part of my issue with some of the performances. There is a whole gangster subplot that annoyed me. There is a Monk that is completely ridiculous. Then on a more serious note, Seol In Ah's role was pretty useless, and forgettable. There is also a family drama plot that I forgot all about until the end when it's obvious that they were missing. These criticisms are because of the writers, more than the acting, which is why i deducted even more points from the story. Don't get me wrong, I liked the story a lot, and loved watching Bong Soon become more confident and evolve into a Shero, but the story as a whole is all over the place. The thriller part is intriguing enough to drive her motivation, but it went from being seriously creepy to resolving with a more comic book feel. There are a lot of parts of the story that I felt were left without a real explanation, or resolved too quickly, but all of this was forgivable because of how much I still enjoyed watching every episode.

I also forgive the last episode, which had mostly filler, but I loved the very end (obvious but perfect), which made me very curious about what a second season would be like.

The OST was good, and matched the show well, especially the "Super Power Girl"Theme! However, I did not fall in love with any of the songs, not even Park Hyung Shik's ballad.

Now comes the highest score for me - rewatch value. I gave it a 9.5 because I could definitely see myself watching this more than once. With all it's flaws, and silliness, I just had so much fun watching, and couldn't wait to watch the next episode! I almost gave rewatch a 10 but I would definitely skip through some of the comedy scenes.

Overall, I would recommend this as a cute twist on a superhero story that encourages female empowerment, not in a subtle way... in a walnut hammer over the head way! I also love the message of not underestimating someone based on appearance, and helping others selflessly. I think it's best to just embrace that the plot is chaos, the comedy is ludicrous, and enjoy the fact that it may not always be coherent but it all supports this character's journey to her destiny (well, maybe not the stupid monk). I also highly recommend it to anyone who is on the lookout for a talented and crush-worthy actor, because I think Park Hyung Shik definitely fits the bill.

If you're looking for maturity, a substantive plot, characters with great depth, and no clichés or exploited stereotypes... back away from this drama slowly and don't come back to it until you're in a lighter mood.

This is the drama equivalent of a bag full of candy! Not every flavor in the bag will be good, but most of it is delicious, and the sugar high makes it all worth it!

Oh, and if there was a Bong Soon video game, I would totally be excited to play it!

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So how would I describe this show? This story tried to be too much. It was a romance mixed with slapstick humor, and dark thriller. How did those elements combine? Not too well, actually....but the parts that were good were good enough to keep me watching until the end. This show started off strong and I was loving it up until about a little over halfway, when it dawned on me that the story was just kind of nonsense. But the leads are so freaking adorable (and probably every teenage girl's dream fantasy romance) that they kept sucking me back in every week. I think Park Bo Young may have reached 'girl crush' status for me. And Park Hyung Shik is almost too pretty - but his acting as Ahn Min Hyuk crushing on Do Bong Soon --- I just "can't even" with him. Too cute for words. They were so cheesy together, but this ahjumma was eating it up. Seriously....this romance is what the show has going for it. But even that is unrealistically done. This show is just fluff....lots and lots of fluff. The story line is chaotic. There is an evil villain that is just too horrifying to be in a rom-com. It was very jarring to go from sweet romance scenes to a creepy masked kidnapper who is terrorizing young women. And the slapstick antics of the gangsters and the high-school gangsters and the screechy femme planning team leader was funny the first time but became just useless filler that was pretty annoying fast forward material. And a lot of people hated that, although played for laughs, the mom seemed abusive (may be why the writers tried to explain that one away in the final episode.) There were funny parts, sure, but they overplayed their hand with them quite a bit. The only thing I would rewatch in this show is the moments with Min Hyuk and Bong Soon. Would I recommend it....sort of. I mean, you'd have to know going in that the story makes no sense, but as a backdrop for a super cute, cheesy beyond belief romance...if you can deal with that then, yeah, go for it. I was entertained for sure (otherwise the rating would be like a 4). But if you need a plot that is logical and a more 'mature' (not THAT kind of mature, but more grown up) romance, then this one won't be right for you.

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